Records: More than 90 suspects arrested on murder charges in 2018 in Bexar County

At least 94 people were arrested or indicted on murder charges in Bexar County in 2018, according to records obtained by mySA.com. Click through the slideshow for a list of every defendant charged with murder in 2018 in Bexar County. less

At least 94 people were arrested or indicted on murder charges in Bexar County in 2018, according to records obtained by mySA.com. Click through the slideshow for a list of every defendant charged with murder ... more

Photo: Bexar County Jail

Photo: Bexar County Jail

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At least 94 people were arrested or indicted on murder charges in Bexar County in 2018, according to records obtained by mySA.com. Click through the slideshow for a list of every defendant charged with murder in 2018 in Bexar County. less

At least 94 people were arrested or indicted on murder charges in Bexar County in 2018, according to records obtained by mySA.com. Click through the slideshow for a list of every defendant charged with murder ... more

Photo: Bexar County Jail

Records: More than 90 suspects arrested on murder charges in 2018 in Bexar County

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At least 94 people were arrested or indicted on murder charges in Bexar County in 2018, according to records obtained by mySA.com.

A few of the defendants were arrested in connection with cold cases or homicides committed in recent years, but the vast majority were charged in killings committed in 2018. This list does not include those charged with murder who later had their cases dismissed.

Between January and November 2018, San Antonio police opened 103 homicide investigations. The number for December was not immediately available. In 2017, police investigated 125 homicides, according to Chief William McManus. These numbers do not include killings investigated by the Bexar County Sheriff's Office.

Earlier this year, mySA.com reported about 41 percent of homicides committed between January and June 2018 in San Antonio remained unsolved. That unsolved rate is slightly above the national average of 40.6 percent, according to FBI statistics.

[Click through the slideshow above for a list of every defendant charged with murder in 2018 in Bexar County.]

In 2018, a handful of slayings shocked San Antonio by their level of apparent violence. Ernesto Esquivel Garcia, who had twice been apprehended by immigration authorities, is accused of kidnapping and killing 20-year-old Jared Vargas, then setting fire to his body in an attempt to cover up the alleged crime. According to online records, he is awaiting a psychiatric evaluation to determine if he is fit to stand trial.

Juan Carlos Garcia and his cousin, Salvador Garcia-Godinez, who is believed to have fled to Mexico, are accused of digging a grave in Garcia's backyard before attempting to kill 16-year-old Christian Jimenez-Santos over a drug dispute. The planed slaying went awry, and police say the two suspects ended up gunning down Jimenez-Santos as he ran away. They abandoned his body in the street and fled, police said.

Ryan Stanush of Converse is accused of beating his girlfriend, 25-year-old Dorinda Ma, so badly she was placed on life support for two days before she died. Ma was an English teacher with Teach for America in the Rio Grande Valley and had moved to San Antonio only weeks before she was killed. Stanush told investigators Ma's injuries were the result of "rough sex," but doctors said her injuries were not consistent with such an explanation, authorities said.

Three of the defendants--Michael Cruz Arroyo, Miguel Gutierrez and Jessica Briones--are accused of killing children under the age of 10. Biones struck her 4-year-old in the head, causing serious brain trauma and eventual death, police said. Gutierrez is accused of killing an 11-month-old child he was baby sitting. Arroyo is facing a charge of capital murder of a child under 10, connected to the death of 4-year-old Cash Briones, whose mother found him dead and covered in bruises in a hotel bed next to Arroyo, who was drunk, police said.